Dream Monitor

It was a dark and stormy night, an ordinary man was watching an ordinary show in his ordinary house. How ... well ... ordinary. He was watching a late-night news program, and that’s when the anchorman spoke:

“Good evening, Rivertown, tonight we have a report that local business, Oxford Furniture & Supplies, has been shut down, leaving many of its staff unemployed on the spot.”

The man turned off his television and let out a big yawn, he figured he should get some sleep. So he got up off of his couch and walked towards his bedroom. He fell flat onto his bed and didn’t bother to get under the blankets, he just fell fast asleep.

It was only then that he found himself in the middle of a furniture store, like the one he saw on the news. It was lively with customers, customers who were interested in the products the store was selling. The man walked up to the front desk, now finding himself wearing a red vest over his clothes, and a nametag that read “Joseph Foster”. Apparently, that was his name. Joseph arrived behind the front desk of the store, ready to greet the customers interested in his products. But as soon as he arrived at the front desk, things started to take an unexpected turn. The customers started to frown, every single one of them, and they gave out complaints such as “the prices are too high” and “this guy is very unhelpful”. The customers’ skin started to turn grey, and then they started to dissolve into puffs of smoke entirely. But off in the distance beyond the store, Joseph could see a faint image of a jester, but the jester vanished without a trace as soon as Joseph blinked his eyes. Suddenly, the entire building was starting to rot, cracks were forming, and the color inside started to fade. The building was collapsing around him, rubble and debris were falling in front of him, and suddenly-

Joseph opened his eyes and found himself on top of his bed again, this time at 5 AM. He looked next to his bed and saw a small notebook. This notebook had a Post-It note taped onto the front cover, this note had the text “Dream Journal” written on it. So Joseph took out a pen from his desk, opened the notebook, and began to write.

Friday, September 24th, 2021

Tonight, I had a dream about my work. I dreamt that as soon as I got to my front desk, all of the customers were unhappy, and the world around me began to fall apart. But, for some reason, I saw a jester outside my work. This isn't the first time I've seen the jester in my dreams as I previously saw him in a dream the night before last night, and the night before that, and the night before that, and so on. Could this be a common element in my dreams? Could this be the key to having a lucid dream? Who knows?

Joseph stopped writing. He put his pen back in a cup on his desk and closed his notebook. Then he decided to get up out of bed and get ready for whatever the day may bring ahead.

Later that night, Joseph returned home, exhausted. He turned on the TV and sat on the couch, watching the same news program he watched last night. A couple of hours later, he turned off the television and let out a big yawn. He got up off of the couch, walked towards his bedroom, and fell flat onto his bed. He, once again, didn't put the blankets over him, he just fell fast asleep.

He had another dream where he was at a dinner table, where his mother, father, ex-wife, and two children were sitting at the table with him. But before he could speak, everyone groaned.

"Daddy, why do you make us unhappy?" one of his children asked him.

Joseph looked nervously around him.

"You can't find a good job" his ex-wife stated.

Sweat was beginning to drop from his brows.

"You dropped out of college," his mother said.

"You continue to disappoint us" his father exclaimed.

"You can never do anything right," said the other child of his.

As the family kept throwing insults and criticisms, Joseph continued to frantically look around him until he looked out his window. He saw the jester once again. He didn't want to continue being tormented by the illusions of his family. So he left his seat at the dinner table and rushed towards the front door.

"Get me out of here!"

Joseph continued to run towards the front door until he finally opened it. But when he was outside, the jester was gone.

"Where are you!? I know you're here! I know I'm ... dreaming."

Joseph realized that he was in a dream once again. But then he looked up and saw the jester smiling above him in mid-air. But Joseph looked behind him as the illusions of his family dissolved and reformed into slime. The slime rushed towards him, but Joseph flew into the air above, knowing that he's in a dream. He flew towards the jester as the jester continued to fly further away from him.

"I need to know why I keep having these dreams!"

As Joseph continues to fly towards the jester, parts of reality, or the reality occurring in this dream, begin to distort around him. Colors were flashing back and forth, and lights were flowing around him.

"I need answers!"

The jester kept flying away, but Joseph was slowly getting closer towards him. But as he did, parts of the dream's reality distorted further, parts of the surrounding area turned to glass that broke around him, other parts turned to paper that tore downwards, and other parts turned to liquid that melted around him. But despite all of this, Joseph kept flying further and further towards the jester, until he soon put his hand on the jester's shoulder. Then the world around him began to dissolve into an empty white void. The jester turned around and looked at Joseph.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said.

The white void then dissolved around Joseph and the jester, and it reformed as a plane resembling outer space, but with no planets seen anywhere. But when Joseph looked closer at one of the stars, he saw a faint image of the house he was in, as well as the slime surrounding the house. But then, the star evaporated into dust.

"Where am I?" he asked the jester.

"You're in a place you're not allowed to enter, a place we call the 'Dream Domain'."

"The ... Dream Domain?"

"That's right. This is a special world where all dreams of the human race are connected. This is where we monitor the dreams and wake up the hosts when their dreams get out of control."

"We?"

"391!" shouted a mighty voice from afar.

After that, both the jester and Joseph were lifted into the air and drawn away from the scene, only to find themselves in a golden hallway. They were greeted by a small elf-like creature in a lawyer's outfit.

The creature said, "Joseph Foster, you have been summoned as a witness to the crime committed by Dream Monitor 391."

"Crime?"

"That's right, I'm known as Dream Monitor Number 391, and we Dream Monitors are technically not allowed to interact with the dreams of humans."

"That's right. And now that your dream has ended with you being pulled into our domain-"

"I didn't ask for him to come with-"

"Silence, criminal! As I was saying, as your dream has ended with you escaping from it, you're stuck in the Dream Domain, and you may never wake up again!"

"What!? So I'm dead!?"

"Not dead yet, just asleep. But soon, you'll run out of food and water, and then you'll be dead."

"391!" shouted the mighty voice again.

"Well hurry now, you don't want to keep the court waiting!"

Then, as the small elf creature disappeared, Joseph and 391 were pulled into a courtroom, where the source of the mighty voice sat on a large golden throne. He was a giant with a big brown beard and a birthmark on his forehead resembling a could shape. Surrounding the court was a jury of other jesters. Apparently, they are other Dream Monitors.

The giant began to speak.

"391! You have been summoned for the crime of summoning a host from his dream into the Dream Domain! Not only that, but I've personally heard reports from your fellow Dream Monitors that you've been speaking into the host's many dreams non-stop for the past month!"

"Who's the giant?" Joseph asked 391.

"That's the Dream Emperor of Humans, the keeper of all human dreams."

"SILENCE!"

The elf in the lawyer suit returned.

"For the crime of dream interference and unwanted summoning of a host, how do you plead!?"

"For the first crime, guilty. For the second crime, not guilty."

"It's pretty obvious you're guilty of both crimes," said the Dream Emperor of Humans.

"You know what the penalty for even the smallest of interferences is, right?"

391 gulped.

"I believe the penalty is ... execution."

"Wait!" Joseph shouted. "It wasn't entirely his fault, I wanted to know why I kept having nightmares of the dreams I've been having lately! I kept a dream journal and saw him in every dream I've had for the past month! I wanted to know why I kept dreaming I was letting my friends and family down!"

"Oh?" questioned the Dream Emperor of Humans, "and why do you think you keep dreaming that you were letting your friends and family down?"

Joseph paused for a moment.

"Because ... I was. What happened in my dreams was ... what happened in real life. When my work ran out of business, I was fired. When college got too hard, I dropped out. When I tried getting a new job, I didn't have much luck. Even when I had my job, I didn't help anyone at all, I was useless to the customers, and I was useless to everyone I know. I just don't know what to do with myself anymore! It's not entirely this guy's fault for what happened, it's also my fault! I kept avoiding my problems and going to sleep to try and escape reality, but the reality came flashing back at me! And I guess now I'm stuck here, with no way back to reality."

The Dream Emperor of Humans paused for a moment.

"There may be a way to bring you back to your world."

"There is!?"

"Not so fast! Dream Monitor 391 has been monitoring your dreams for a while, and he's been interfering with them for the past month. He's the only link to your world. Since he's been inside your dreams, he's been exposed to the harsh realities of your world, and that means that the link to your world is being held inside him. If you seek to return to your world, you will have to kill Dream Monitor 391. Likewise, since he was the one in charge of your dreams, you will never have a dream again when you return to your world. Also, time moves slower in this world than it does in the real world, so when you return to your world, a month may have already passed."

Joseph thought about his tough decision. If he returns to his world, he'll never have a good dream or a nightmare again, but, most importantly, he'll have to kill a guy he just met. But if he doesn't kill this guy, the court will have him executed and he'll remain trapped in the Dream Domain forever. In his heart, he didn't want to do it, but he knew what he had to do.

Later, Joseph woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by his ex-wife, two children, and parents. They saw him wake up and embraced him in a warm tearful hug.

"W-what happened?"

His father spoke: "You were in a coma for over a month. We found you barely breathing at your home. It's a miracle you survived."

His ex-wife spoke: "I don't know what we would've done without you."

One of his children spoke: "I'm glad you're awake, Daddy."

His mother spoke: "You need us, and we need you."

It was this moment where Joseph felt the closest he's ever been to his family. So he embraced them in a hug and cried with them. He also knew that, since a month passed like the Dream Emperor of Humans stated, what he witnessed wasn't just a dream, it was true. He knew that he will never have a dream again since he returned to reality through the only possible method. But that didn't matter to him, he needed to return to what truly mattered: reality.

THE END